Permanent waving process



Patented Jan. 28, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE No Drawing. Application November 28, 1938, Serial No. 242,765

2 Claims.

This invention relates to the hair treatment commonly referred to as a permanent waving process, although it is not limited precisely to the particular art known as permanent waving as it is both beneficial and adaptable to other forms of Waving, setting, or dressing, of the hair, wherein the hair is treated with ointments, oils, pomades, or similar substances which are intended to more or less penetrate the cuticle of the hair for the purpose of lending thereto softness, elasticity, pliability, sheen, or such other similar quality or a combination of qualities desirable in the promotion of or maintenance of wave and beauty of appearance in the hair.

It frequently happens that in many people the hair more or less naturally resists the absorption of fluids, oils, or ointments, such as are usually used in preparing the hair for waving, or to secure a required quality and appearance in the hair; and in others such resistance to such treatment has been brought about by the use of dyes, bleaches, or by other means, and in such cases considerable difficulty has often been experienced in forming a wave in the hair.

In a great many of these cases it is found that such resistance to treatment is not merely a result of mere dryness in the cuticle or sheath of the hair as a whole, but is a result, at least in part, of the tight overlapping and sealing of the imbricate scales which form the cuticle, thus effectively preventing access of the ointments, oils, pomades, or the like between the scales for their inter-lubrication or for access to the intercellular spaces of the cortex and possibly to the medulla of the hair according to the penetrating properties of the said ointments, oils, and pornades, as the case may be.

Chemical methods have been tried with varying success, and in many cases complete dissatisfaction, to overcome this resistance to penetration of the surface of the hair cuticle, or to so free the imbricate scales from one another as to permit for lubrication and the passage of the treatment fluids therebetween; and I have found that the required result may be attained in a highly effective. quick, and simple manner by simply subjecting the hair to violet ray radiations which have the effect of opening or loosening the said imbricate scales of the hair cuticle much in the same way that sunlight opens the overlapping leaves of certain plant formations, although it is not suggested that the mechanical action is necessarily the same. Nevertheless, even on hair which has been dyed, bleached, or otherwise previously treated or abused to an extent which rendered it practically unresponsive under ordinary circumstances to the usual Waving treatments, I have succeeded by my present method in bringing such hair into such condition that it would readily accept the ointments, oils, 5 pomades, or lotions, in the manner required and respond to the waving process in a very satisfactory manner.

To effect the irradiation of the hair I may simply comb it for, say, five to ten minutes with 10 a violet ray comb, many types of which are to be procurable on the market and have hitherto been used purely for scalp treatments, more especially in the attacking of seborrhoea, a bacterial condition considered the principal cause of excessive dandruff. Although I am aware of this particular use of violet ray in the scalp treatments, I am unaware of such radiations having been made use of as a step in a Waving process to produce the results which I have attained and to eliminate the difficulties hereinb'efore referred to which have long troubled those practicing the hair waving art with certain types of hair, nor have such irradiations been used in eliminating, either wholly or in part, chemical 25 treatments such as have been resorted to in order to make the hair responsive to the ointments, oils, pomades, and so forth utilized in effecting the actual waving, dressing, or setting of the hair. 0

It should be understood that the intensity or prolongation of the violet ray irradiation should not be carried to such an excess that harm may be 'done to the hair or the desired effect, once attained, nullified, as is of course possible. From 35 one to two minutes in almost all cases suflices.

After the hair has been subjected to the violet ray irradiation to the required extent, the hair is then treated with such oils, pomades and/or setting fluids which the nature of the desired 40 result calls for, and the hair then manipulated and treated, as by the application of heat, in the usual manner.

Where considered necessary or desirable, the hair may be first washed with water, soap and water, or any suitable solvent to remove grease or foreign matter coating the surface of the hair shafts which might otherwise more or less shield the hair shafts from the action of the violet ray. 50

This method may be developed within the scope of the following claims without departing from the essential features of the said invention, as will be well understood, and the means of providing the violet rays or effecting the irradia- 55 tion of the hair may be dictated by expedience and convenience.

What I claim is:

1. In a hair waving method, the preconditioning treatment consisting of the preliminary step of irradiating the hair with ultra violet rays for a time sufficient to open the scales of the hair cuticle, then subjecting the hair to suitable fluids while the scales are so opened to bring the hair 10 into condition for waving.

2. In a hair waving method, the preconditioning treatment consisting of first washing the hair to remove excessive oil and foreign matter from the hair surfaces, then subjecting the hair to violet ray irradiation, until the scales of the hair cuticle are spread thereby, then treating the hair with suitable fluids while the scales are so spread to facilitate and set the final wave of the hair. 

